A freakish accident stuns police, teen's friends
NATICK -- A split-second slower or faster and everything would have been different for Eric Brack.
Instead, as Brack, an 18-year-old runner and a recent graduate of Holliston High School, was driving west on Route 135 in Natick on Tuesday with his father, an underground explosion heaved a 100-pound manhole cover 25 feet in the air and through the windshield, leaving him in critical condition yesterday.
''How do you figure the timing on that?" said Natick police Lieutenant Nick Mabardy, a spokesman for the department. ''It's so scary, really. You drive down the street and you watch for other cars, you watch for kids on bikes, you watch for runners. How do you figure this is going to occur?"
Brack and his father, Karl, were heading west on Route 135 near Lake Cochituate at 7:20 p.m. when the explosion occurred directly in front of their Chevy Tahoe.
Police said a witness fishing nearby reported that flames flew 25 feet in the air after the blast, which was believed to have been responsible for a power outage that darkened 3,000 Natick homes and businesses for about an hour, according to
A crime scene technician with Natick police, Detective James M. Ordway, said the manhole cover never touched the hood or roof of the vehicle. After entering the SUV, it snapped back the front passenger seat, broke the rear seat, and landed in the vehicle's cargo area.
Calling the accident ''the freakiest thing I have ever seen in my career," Ordway was still shocked by the event yesterday. ''You cannot duplicate this; I'll bet my retirement pension," he said.
NStar spokeswoman Christina McKenna said the utility was investigating the explosion. Technicians at the scene are focusing on the failure of an underground electrical cable, she said.
''Our highest concern is for this young man and his family," she said. ''Our hearts go out to him and his family. We've reached out to them, and we'll do anything for them to make this horrible, horrible time easier for them."
Brack, who suffered injuries including a broken jaw and broken arm, was taken to MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham and was later flown to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he remained yesterday, according to a hospital spokeswoman. Police said Brack's father did not need medical attention.
The family declined to talk to the news media yesterday as they waited at Mass. General, according to the hospital spokeswoman. Neighbors said they had been told by the family not to comment.
Holliston High School principal Mary Canty said yesterday that Brack graduated this past spring and was a popular student.
She said Brack is an avid and talented runner. He placed 37th in a 5,000-meter run in a state meet in October.
''Everyone is just traumatized by it," she said. ''We just can't believe it. . . . This is a well-liked student, a wonderful kid everyone is going to be thinking about for a long time here, until we hear that he's OK."
McKenna said that multiple safety systems are built into NStar's underground electrical system, but that all apparently failed Tuesday.
''The whole thing is not supposed to happen," she said. ''It's extremely rare to have an explosion in a manhole, but to have one powerful enough to lift a manhole cover is especially rare."
A rash of similar explosions plagued NStar in 2001, including one that injured a pedestrian and an MBTA bus driver in Jamaica Plain. Later that year, a manhole explosion in the South End incinerated a Jeep Wrangler and damaged several nearby vehicles.
Globe correspondent Alonso Soto contributed to this report.
